The present invention relates to displaying video image information on a computing device used for navigation, computer games and other purposes.
Various kinds of systems and applications are available that provide individuals with useful information for traveling. For example, navigation systems installed in vehicles provide useful information to vehicle drivers and passengers, including information for finding desired destinations, as well as guidance for following routes to desired destinations. Similar features are available on portable (e.g., handheld) devices, such as personal navigation systems, personal digital assistants with navigation functions and mobile phones. Useful navigation, routing, and map information is also available from various web sites.
Meaningful routing or navigation guidance includes helping a user ascertain his/her location and orientation relative to his/her surroundings. U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,886 discloses a method for showing a perspective, or 3D, view of a vehicle's position on a map generated from two dimensional data. This type of view can be useful for helping a user determine his/her position relative to the road network and guiding the user to a desired destination.
Although the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,886 is helpful, there exists room for improvement.
For example, it would be helpful to show a user an actual video depicting a maneuver from the vantage point of the user, i.e., the driver of a vehicle. The maneuver may be a turn from one road onto another, a merge onto an entrance ramp, a merge onto an exit ramp, or even a U-turn. However, collecting video data depicting all the possible maneuvers that a driver could take would be a time-consuming and expensive undertaking. It would also be expensive and time-consuming to keep such a collection of video up-to-date. Furthermore, it would be expensive to store the video data depicting all possible maneuvers that a driver could possibly make in a geographic area.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide additional features on navigation systems and other computing systems to help guide a user. Further, there is a need to provide ways to help a user know his/her position or orientation relative to his/her surroundings in a maneuver. There is a further need to provide information to a user to help locate or orient a user in his/her surroundings in a maneuver in a manner that efficiently uses computing resources.